We keep encountering "something new under the sun," for us at least, when it comes to the weather. Longtime residents, no doubt, have seen it before, but we have not. This time it's been fog combined with below-freezing temperatures, resulting in exquisite, very thick crystalline formations on trees and other objects. Christmas card-worthy scenes of the most schmaltzy kind are everywhere. Pine trees in particular are coated in ways that look artificial. Yet if you touch a branch, the whiteness proves to be powdery and falls away in a poof.

The forecast for the next week is for more Real Winter. No chinooks, no highs above freezing. But also no precipitous drops. No temps so low that people will want to stay inside and put off doing their errands. By Calgary standards, in other words, it'll be tolerable.